Fate in the clouds
by Selene-daughter of the sea
Summary: Abandoned in Kumo at the age of 3, Harry Potter grew up learning the ninja way from the local academy as well as a mysterious figure that lives in the mountains nearby. Finally making Genin, he trains and makes friends in Konoha, finding a plot as well. Not long afterwards, a figure appears trying to get him to return to a place that left him. What will he decide? AU for both parts
1. Chapter 1

**Author's note: **I know you're all most likely mad at all the new stories I'm making, but I have a whole lot of ideas going in my head. This isn't one of them, though. This is a story I'm adopting from sakurademonalchemist with her permission. This is a story that she only ever started but never got to posting so she's letting me post it for her.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Harry Potter or Naruto in any way, shape, or form. They belong to their respective creators.

Chapter 1~

"_Are you sure this will work?"_

"_What have we got to lose? Either he gets found or he dies, this way we'll be rid of this brat forever! If they come for him, we can tell them we have no idea where he is."_

"_I know, it's just…" long lost maternal instincts came to the front, thinking that perhaps abandoning her sister's son was a bad idea. However, that was squashed by the fact that she had no love for the boy and it was probably better for him to live out his life away from her husband who absolutely loathed her sister for being different._

_He didn't leave her much choice, taking the three-year-old boy with him outside England and to a country few rarely went to because of how dangerous it was. He left him in a mountainous region where clouds perpetually hid the middle of the mountains from view._

_He didn't know that someone had come to investigate the child's crying a few hours later and put him in an orphanage with other children, or the angry face the man had for someone abandoning a toddler in a very hazardous area._

00000000

_He knew he was going to die. He had chosen to take his twin's place so that the clan's bloodline would never fall in the hands of the scum who tried to kidnap his niece. Right as they were about to kill him for his eyes, someone broke into the room and nearly killed the medics._

_During the scuffle, he received a minor blow to the head in a place where it wasn't dangerous to his health, but it caused memory loss. Specifically who he was and where he came from. He remembered his ninja training, basic facts, and the date, but everything about what made his personality was gone._

_It would be years before the effects of sparing his life would be felt._

00000000

"Crap, crap, crap! I am so freaking late!" bemoaned a young genin.

He had recently graduated from the Academy, because of his teammates however, he had failed spectacularly and was stuck with remedial classes for another year.

Fortunately, his teachers knew he could easily pass again, and the fact that someone else was teaching him taijutsu meant that he could skip those classes entirely to the annoyance of his fellow students.

He was five foot seven, with neck length fire red hair in a short tail, and bright green eyes behind indestructible black glasses. On his back was a long katana, almost long enough to be called a tachi but it was a few inches to short. He wore a deep blue hoodie that could hide his distinctive hair color when put on. His kunai and shuriken pouches were on his left and right legs respectively. His pants were black, comfortable, and went down to his ankles. He had his legs taped where the pouches were. His shoes were Kumar standard and well worn.

He also had an odd lightning shape scar, but his hair was long enough no one ever saw it.

"You're late brat. Maybe I should train someone else," said the old man.

"Sorry, Jiji, I got stuck with clean up duty at the Academy and those jerks make it harder by knocking over the bucket three times!"

"Humph. Well at least your reasoning is acceptable."

He grinned and bowed to his taijutsu teacher, a blind old hermit on the mountain. He had met him years ago on a dare from the other orphans and once he realized how cool the man actually was, he kept pestering him until he relented and taught him.

He didn't mind the brat, who brought him his weekly groceries and the mail. He didn't like to socialize anyway and this was the perfect excuse not to go into town.

The only real downside was that he had unofficially adopted the brat and the kid always called him Jiji. At least the kid didn't complain when he sent him into town with weights he could barely pick up just to get the mail and food. Nor when he had him sharpen all his weapons once a week to insure they could kill someone.

"Are you ready to continue the exercise from yesterday?"

"Yes Jiji!"

"Assume the stance."

The boy spread his legs in a way that made it easy to spin around.

"Remember, chakra is a part of you, but it needs to be conditioned before you can use it properly. You must have absolute control to be able to shut or open Chakra Points with any efficiency. Now, try to expel the chakra on all points."

"Hai!"

He closed his eyes and began to expel his chakra all over his body. The resulting power surge caused his body to spin rapidly. Fortunately, he was used to such sensations, so he wasn't dizzy as he could have been. Suddenly, his left foot crossed his right and he tripped.

"Hiroto, what have I said about keeping your feet straight?" said Jiji tiredly.

"Fancy footwork isn't going to do you a damn bit of good if you can't keep from tripping on your own feet," Hiroto replied, just as tired.

"Now, again!"

Hiroto straightened himself out and tried again. He was able to keep it up, but the problem was keeping his feet from tripping him. For a Wind element, he was extremely clumsy. According to the old man, this was because his body had yet to grow into his full height, and his gangly legs would only hinder him until he was able to handle having such long limbs.

Hiroto's dream was to become a medic nin, like Tsunade of the Sannin. This was mostly because he had seen how devastatingly effective the old man's fighting style was, incorporating lightning chakra to shut down the Chakra Points of his opponent. However, his control wasn't the best, and he had to spend time on his kenjutsu as well, since he loved swords.

Hiroto often employed a double-handed style, which meant he was ambidextrous by default. He was one of the smartest boys in the class, but for some reason, few of the kids liked him.

In a village where bringing new bloodlines was important, a nameless orphan like Hiroto was practically a nobody unless he showed real promise.

That was why he accepted the dare of the children in his orphanage and pestered the old man until he trained him. With the unusual tactics that the old man used, he was sure to be noticed.

It was either that, or fall back to his second option, pranks. Jiji didn't tell him to stop, only to learn how to escape his victims before he employed it on the jounin. This turned out to be wise advice after he had to clean up his first mess when his legs tripped him at the worst possible time. At least he had gotten off light…

"Again!"

Hiroto, in a fit of annoyance, returned to his stance, only this time he tried something different and channeled wind chakra instead.

"Stop! Hiroto, what was that?" asked the old man.

"I was channeling wind," he said, sitting down. It took a bit more chakra to use the element, but he hadn't tripped this time.

"Hmm…it never occurred to me that you could use elemental variants instead of straight chakra. Well, since you seem to have found a new way to use this trick, let's see if you can do the same with lightning."

Hiroto nodded, having enjoyed his short break. He assumed the stance again, only this time instead of expelling pure chakra, he used lightning chakra. The result was a dome of roughly one meter in diameter that sparkled like a lightning tag.

"Enough! It seems we've found a way for you to master this trick. You need to rest in order to restore your reserves; your chakra is barely genin level right now."

According to the old man, Hiroto had mid-chunin reserves with barely genin-level control. It was something he took great pains to correct when he heard the boy's chosen career as a medic.

Sure, he could pinpoint all the pressure points in the human body better than most students could, but his control needed a lot of work.

00000000

"What do you want be?" I'm in the middle of something," the Raikage complained. It wasn't that he hated his brother, far from it, but the headaches he caused by his mere presence were moderately bad.

"You were at the graduation exam this year, right?" Bee asked.

The Raikage nodded. "What of it?"

"I noticed a certain red-haired menace didn't pass the second exam," said Bee.

The Raikage groaned. Ever since Bee had found that red-haired kid in the forest training grounds, he had kept half an eye on him.

"From what I heard, it wasn't even the kid's fault. His team hated him from the get go and sabotaged him. His jounin sensei didn't want him so he threw all three of them back for another year."

"…Is it possible for me to take him instead? I've seen the kid train, his sword technique is really good for his age and his taijutsu is like nothing I've ever seen."

"In six months, Bee. You know the rules; throwbacks have to stay in the Academy at least six months before they can be retested by new jounin. Not to mention you have to find the kid. He disappears from the village for hours at a time. If it wasn't for the fact that he has no useful knowledge worth knowing, I'd be worried he was some kind of spy," said the Raikage.

"Nah, he just goes to some house in the middle of the mountains to train with a blind guy."

Seeing his brother's look, Bee explained.

"I followed him once when I heard he went missing a lot. I don't know who the blind guy is, but ever since Hiroto started training with him he almost never leaves his house and he always has a piece of cloth around his eyes and forehead. His taijutsu's really weird though," said be offhand.

"Weird _how_?" asked the Raikage.

"From what I can see, he does these little tap things to disable his opponent. I've seen the kid try something similar by channeling lightning chakra into senbon."

The Raikage immediately became suspicious. There weren't any taijutsu experts with that sort of skill in the village…if there were, he would have known about it. It sounded a lot like the Hyuuga's Gentle Fist technique though, and that made absolutely no sense.

The Hyuuga had avoided Kumo like the bijuu for what happened to their clan head. That had been a political mess and a half. To top it all off, Hiashi's body had never been found, so they couldn't actually return it to the clan as an apology.

"If you want the kid, then you can have him in six months. In the meantime, either take a mission or get out of my damn office!" he growled.

Bee held up his hands in surrender, and left before his brother blasted him out of the office…again.

00000000

_Six months later_

Bee was among the jounin instructors awaiting their selection from the previous group of possible genin. He had surprised a great many people when he showed up, but he wanted to get his hands on the kid before someone else did.

Hiroto looked at the jounin bored out of his mind while reading a text on healing techniques. At least, until his name was called up by the teacher.

"Hiroto. HIROTO! Get your head out of the blasted book boy!"

Hiroto looked up and glared at him. He was the taijutsu instructor and the man always had it out for him because he never used what he taught. Hiroto took great pleasure in pissing him off.

"What do you want, you senile old man?" said Hiroto, smirking.

"Shut up you clanless brat! One of the jounin asked for you specifically, so get lost!"

"…Someone actually asked for me?" he said surprised. One of the jounin in the back waved his hand and Hiroto walked towards him. It took him a minute to recognize the man.

"Oh you have got to be kidding. The undisputed _worst_ singer in Kumar asked for me by name?"

"Oi!" said Bee.

"Aren't you the same guy who also followed me to Jiji's a few years back and couldn't use stealth to save his life? Your hiding place was so obvious it was sad!" said Hiroto.

Bee could tell the kid didn't mean anything of it; he was just being blunt. It was something the blind man taught early on. If you can't be nice, be blunt to the point they leave you alone.

Bee grinned, as he tested the kid's sword skills against his own. Hiroto was good, almost prodigy level, but he needed someone who knew what he was doing to take it to the next stage. His taijutsu was flawless and damn hard to counter. His ninjutsu was good, but was limited to what he could afford in scrolls. His genjutsu, passable. His fuinjutsu, which he tested as a lark, was beyond what most genin could pull off.

Hiroto had a strange knack for removing seals though. Apparently, the old man he trained with had one and it had taken three years to work out a counter.

Bee didn't even know how to test the kid's healing jutsu, so he could just pawn him off on the medic nins.

He grinned. The kid was good…he saw no reason to force him to deal with idiots until he was chunin.

00000000

"Jiji! I finally became a genin!" shouted Hiroto.

"What?"

"During the usual six-month evaluation one of the jounin asked for me. Said he was impressed with my sword skills. Now I can finally take on missions!" said Hiroto.

"Legal ones, at any rate," muttered the old man.

Kumo's orphanage had a rather unique system for the kids to earn pocket money when they were old enough to understand math. For the civilians who didn't want to go through the hassle of a legal mission, which put money back into the Kumo mainstream, they posted ads in the orphanages. The payout was lower, but they didn't have to write mission reports as a result.

The Raikage only allowed it for one reason. All the ads were for D ranks that anyone could do and they weren't allowed outside the village. Therefore, the clanless kids could do the dishes and all the other rather boring chores for cash and the genin would get more time to train.

It was an imperfect system, but it was a hell of a lot better than what Konoha did by forcing all new genin to do such monotonous tasks until they earned the right for a C rank.

"Who's your teacher?"

"The Raikage's brother, Bee. I swear to Inari if he starts to rap, I am going to shut his Chakra Points off!"

"Go ahead and try little man," said a voice behind him.

"GAH! Bee-sensei?!" said Hiroto, nearly having a heart attack.

"What? You thought I would let my new student go outside the village without finding out about the people associates with? Give me some credit here!" said Bee, grinning.

"So, you are Kira Bee. I can only hope the rumors of your rhymes were exaggerated…but then again I heard about the destruction that outdoor concert caused five years ago," said the old man.

"What I would like to know is why I've never seen you in the village before. A blind man would attract attention, especially if he knows taijutsu well enough to teach it."

"For the love of…I have no idea why people keep calling me blind. I can see perfectly well, it's just that I hate it when people stare at my eyes!" he said irritated.

"Your eyes are so pale and you can't see the pupils. Of course people think your blind," countered Hiroto, annoyed.

Bee was starting to connect the dots.

A body that was never found. A man who lives alone and has no name who can teach taijutsu that has never been seen before in Kumo that involves shutting off Chakra Points. A seal removed by a kid that was placed on the forehead.

All of it pointed to one thing and one thing only.

Hiroto's grumpy teacher was the missing and long presumed dead Hiashi Hyuuga.

Bee groaned. His brother was going to have kittens when Bee finally told him.

**Author's note: **Few, the first chapter is done. This whole chapter is over 2000 words, and I think that each one will be longer than the last. I have to edit and retype the old ones, though, so don't expect good updates. Hope you enjoy!

Ja ne!

~Selene-daughter of the sea


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's note:** Hello fellow readers, Selene-daughter of the sea here with another chapter of Fate in the Clouds.

I had a reviewer ask about why I had put Hiashi down for who was in Kumo instead of Hizashi. The reason why is that even though Hizashi was sent to Kumo, they thought he was Hiashi, thus them not knowing. In addition, the reason why Hiroto is taller is that I say he is about a year older than the Rookie Nine, thus his height. As for the red hair, well, I say that it was a side effect of the Killing Curse hitting him all those years ago caused the gene that would have him with red hair came to the forefront. Don't worry; it's still darker than Lily's, as it is more of Auburn than red in color.

**WizardShinobi**: Those are some interesting ideas and will think about it, though I may not use all of them. That is an interesting theory though.

**PCheshire:** You'll find out later *winks*

**RandomAsRainbows**: He doesn't remember a lot of his past, which is why he never returned.

**Additional note: **I do not do well with raps, so if anyone wants to help me with them for Bee, PM me and let me know. Otherwise, there might not be that many in my story at all. Oh, and this is the second and last chapter that sakurademonalchemist wrote herself, so after this, it will be all my own style.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Harry Potter or Naruto in any way, shape, or form. Nor do I make any money from my fanfics.

Chapter 2~

Bee wasn't expecting his brother's reaction to the news of what really happened to the Hyuuga who had been brought to Kumo after the mess with the kidnapping ten years ago. Hiroto was roughly the same age as the girl they tried to kidnap around that time.

It was probably why Hiashi took to the kid. Bee had put off telling his brother for years, in order to get Hiroto's skills up to par before his brother did something stupid.

A reacted exactly how he feared.

He blasted Bee out of the office in a fit of rage at the fact that his brother learned the actual fate of the Hyuuga who was brought to Kumo and never mentioned it sooner.

The fact that Hiroto was scheduled to join the Chunin exams in Konoha this year, since it had taken three years before Bee was comfortable in letting him try the exams. The first time around was a nightmare, since the two he was stuck working with got him kicked out by the second exam.

If Bee was right, then the fact Hiashi was still alive and had trained Hiroto would open a completely new mess to deal with. The fact that the man didn't remember a thing about who he actually was actually a blessing since it meant that Konoha couldn't claim they had deliberately kept him in Kumo to breed with others.

The fact that they only recently found out he was even alive was in their favor as well.

"I'll let him go, but take the Hyuuga with you if he's willing. If we're lucky, this might solve more problems than it's already caused."

"And get the Hyuuga clan off our backs about the mess the previous Raikage caused," said Bee bitterly. The Hyuuga Fiasco had been the last straw. Two months after that, his brother took out the previous Raikage and his advisers who had suggested it and took over.

With the all clear to take Hiroto and Hiashi to Konoha for the exam, all that was left was convincing the Hyuuga to go along with it.

Hiashi glared at Bee, but agreed on one condition. He would go to Konoha for as long as Hiroto would be there…as long as Bee didn't rap in his house anymore or bug him for help with his taijutsu and chakra control.

He still didn't get why Bee had Hiroto pack anything he would miss in the house before they left, however.

00000000

_Konoha – front gate_

"Passport and reason for visit," said the chunin at the gate, bored.

Hiroto handed his first, and Bee handed over his and Hiashi's which had a fake name on it. They didn't want the Hyuuga clan outraged about the fact he was back the minute they stepped in the village.

Hiashi had his blindfold on like usual. After so many years, it was hard for him to go out in public without it. Hiroto didn't think anything of it, since his teacher rarely took it off anyway except to wash it. He had only seen his eyes once and that was it.

Hiroto stared at the people who had lavender eyes so pale that it was easy for someone who didn't know about them to assume they were blind. The way they maneuvered in the crowd said otherwise though.

Once he knew where the hotel was for the exam which was in three days was, he asked Bee if he could explore the village for a bit.

"Go ahead, but don't cause any trouble, and for kami's sake, don't get on the bad side of anyone who looks like him!" said Bee.

"Is this about the fiasco the last Raikage caused?"

"Idiot tried to kidnap a Hyuuga. The team failed, and they sent someone in her stead to appease the greedy bastard."

"Jiji," Hiroto stated.

Bee nodded.

Hiashi was busy reading and wasn't paying any attention to their conversation.

"So you're afraid they'll take offense to the face we brought him back?"

"No, I'm afraid they'll be pissed we didn't say anything sooner. That clan has a grudge against the village since the incident."

"So avoid pale eyes. Got it, sensei."

00000000

Hiroto ended up running into Konoha genin anyway when he saw a couple of Sand Genin harassing what was obviously an Academy student.

Therefore, he did what he usually did to bullies. Hiroto whacked him upside the head and kept the kid from falling on his butt.

"You okay kid?" Hiroto asked.

"Yeah! Thanks mister!"

The pink haired genin took one look at his headband and gasped.

"What are Kumo and Suna genin doing here?"

"Chunin exam," said Hiroto with a shrug.

"Huh?" asked the blonde, head tilted in confusion.

Hiroto rubbed his eyes behind his glasses in frustration. "Every six months there's a chunin exam in one of the major villages. This time it's Konoha. At least, that's why I'm here," Hiroto explained.

"Same for us," said the sandy-haired blond girl from Suna.

"Does that include Red in the tree?" Hiroto asked.

"Gaara!" yelped the girl.

Gaara was roughly Hiroto's age, and he carried a massive gourd on his back. He had the kanji for love on his forehead and he looked like he was an insomniac.

"Well this is beyond awkward. Just out of curiosity, is anyone else up for ramen? They don't have any decent restaurants in Kumo and I can't ever seem to get it right," asked Hiroto.

The Konoha blond brightened up immediately at the word.

"I know a great place!" he said cheerfully.

"First round is on me!" said Hiroto.

The blond cheered and so did the chibi patrol. The pink haired girl grimaced. The Suna nin went on their own way, but Hiroto noticed the odd look the red head gave him.

00000000

Hiroto was having a blast chatting with Naruto about pranks. When he saw the Sexy Jutsu, the first thing on his mind was…

"Dude! You've _got_ to teach me that! The sheer amount of chaos I could inflict would totally be worth the ass kicking form the girls!" said Hiroto. Naruto beamed at him.

Hiroto ignored the glares the Hyuuga clan was giving him, even when Naruto noticed it with confusion.

"Why are the Hyuuga glaring at you? They normally reserve those looks for, well, me!" Naruto asked.

"Ah, yeah, about that… My teacher told me straightforwardly to 'avoid the pale eyes' after our previous Raikage did something so monumentally stupid that Konoha refuses to make a new peace treaty with us."

"Are you talking about the incident where two supposed Kumo nin tried to kidnap Hanabi's sister Hinata when she was three?" asked the kid Hiroto had helped.

Finding out that he had prevented Suna from pissing off the Third Hokage for bullying his grandson had been a shock.

"Yep," Hiroto said. "Want to hear something really weird my teacher told me though? When all was said and done no one had a clue where the body went. Even when the representatives from Konoha asked about it, they admitted that it was never found. In fact they never found any evidence that the man was even _in_ Kumo, and they found the people who were supposed to work on it."

"What does that mean?" asked Naruto.

"It means that we have no idea what happened to the Hyuuga who was selected to take the girl's place, or even if he's alive. Believe me, seeing someone with pale eyes able to shut off chakra points would be a big deal in Kumo. We place a lot of emphasis on clans there for some reason."

"What do you mean?" asked the one girl in the group.

"Clanless orphans have a harder time getting promoted, unless they're really good at something. Hell, in the orphanage, we had a messenger board that gave the equivalent to Konoha's D ranks so the orphans could earn a little pocket money. We spend most of our time either training or doing C ranks," Hiroto explained.

"Sounds like it would be a lot more fun than what we do. Kakashi doesn't even really train us, just dumps a D rank on us. I mean Sakura-chan can barely do the basics!" Naruto said sagely.

"I have an idea! How about we do spar a little before the exams? No jutsu, nothing to damaging, just straight out taijutsu. It's a real pain to find anyone who can keep up with me in Kumo."

"Sure!"

Naruto didn't seem to find it odd that he was talking to Hiroto like another Konoha genin. He was just that friendly and Hiroto was nice. He didn't see a Kumo nin, he just saw a new friend.

00000000

Kakashi wasn't the only one staring when he saw the Kumo headband sparring with Konoha Leaf. What surprised them was that the Kumo's taijutsu looked extremely familiar, and he was actually correcting a few things Naruto did without thinking about it.

Kakashi was more worried as to why a Kumo genin was using what were clearly Gentle Fist strikes without the chakra.

"You're not half bad fox boy!"

"You're better than Sasuke!" Naruto grinned. He was enjoying the sparring match with the Kumo nin.

Hiroto grinned at him. He liked this kid, who reminded him of a younger, less annoying version of his teacher Bee.

He felt a bit disappointed to leave Naruto to his team, but was heartened by the fact that he would eventually run into the kid again later.

It wasn't until he found another genin with pale lavender eyes and a rather nasty scowl on his face that he had any real trouble.

"Look pale eyes, I don't want any trouble. I have been told specifically to avoid anyone from your clan."

"I don't care about that. I want to know if what you said about the Hyuuga selected to take the place of Hinata-sama was true."

"Well yeah. Bee-sensei mentioned it off hand that the man they sent was never actually found and that the medics that were supposed to operate on him were all knocked out. There wasn't any physical evidence he was even there, not even a single drop of blood. They have no idea what happened either. The Raikage was replaced because of that mess and several advisers were killed for convincing him to try and kidnap a Hyuuga," said Hiroto, keeping his hands in full view of the genin.

He could sense the ANBU who were guarding all the foreign genin watching the confrontation. As long as he made it clear he wasn't going to start something, he wouldn't be kicked out. He wasn't an idiot.

Hiroto was going to back up when he sensed the old man show up.

"Hiroto, get back to the hotel now. Bee is driving me up the wall with those poor excuses of a rhyme," said the old man gruffly.

The effect was instantaneous. The genin stiffened and looked at the old man hard. He couldn't see the man's eyes, and he seemed far too familiar.

"You got it, Jiji. See you pale eyes," said Hiroto, eager to leave.

"Hiroto, who was that?" the man asked.

"Some genin who overheard my comment about the body of the guy sent after that fiasco never being found."

Hiashi slapped him upside the head hard.

"You idiot! You're not supposed to speak of village matters to foreigners! What if it had been an S class secret? You could be endangering yourself and your village with that loose tongue!" he barked.

"Yeah, but this wasn't a village secret so much as an odd rumor I heard around town," said Hiroto, rubbing his head.

Besides, he ran it with Bee who agreed it was the perfect way to lay groundwork for returning Hiashi to his real family. In addition, he really wanted to meet this Naruto, as he had a few suspicions about the kid.

It was the last name apparently.

00000000

_Hyuuga Compound_

"Neji, what's this I hear about you challenging a Kumo genin in the middle of the road?" growled Hiashi.

"Uncle, don't take this the wrong way, but where were you about twenty to thirty minutes ago?" Neji asked.

"I've been here all day filling out paperwork. Why?" he asked suspiciously. Neji noted that one of the other Branch members nodded in confirmation.

"because I swear on our family name that I just saw you wearing a blindfold and a blank headband walking away with the same Kumo genin I confronted about a rumor he started," Neji said flatly.

"What?" said Hiashi in shock.

"According to the Kumo genin, my father was never found in Kumo, even though the medics scheduled to remove his eyes were found. Shortly after the Raikage was replaced, and they still have no idea where the body went or what happened to it. And while I was spying on that genin during a sparring match with the Uzumaki kid, he was fighting with what were clearly Gentle Fist strikes without chakra," said Neji.

"Are you positive about the style?"

"There wasn't any mistaking that form. He was using the Gentle Fist with precision, as if he had been taught by a full practitioner."

"…I will have a word with the Hokage tomorrow. Neji, don't say a word of this to anyone, particularly the Elders."

"Understood Uncle."

00000000

_Chunin Exams, day 1 part 1_

Right before Naruto and his team were to go into the building, Hiroto walked up to him.

"So you guys got the all clear to join the exam too?" he asked.

"Hey, where's your team?" asked Naruto.

"Haven't got one. I'm apprenticed, since I had trouble working with kids in my class. Anyway, are you guys planning on going through the school?"

The pink haired one nodded carefully, not sure whether to trust this foreigner or not.

"…You guys do know how to walk up trees without your hands right?" Hiroto asked.

"Yup! About the only thing Kakashi's taught us!" said Naruto.

"Then why don't you walk up the building to the room? It's what I was planning on doing, since I saw that pale-eyed kid from earlier go in with his team. I'd like to avoid him as long as possible if it's all the same to you," said Hiroto.

Seeing the collective blink of Team 7, it was clear that the thought hadn't occurred to them.

"Is that even allowed?" the girl asked.

"I saw three teams, one from Konoha, Iwa, and Kusa walk up the side of the building into an open window, where I can only assume the classroom is not more than ten minutes ago. I don't think they really care about how you get in, just as long as you're on time," said Hiroto flatly.

"I'm in!" Naruto said.

The three followed Hiroto, and he pointed at a window. Naruto went first, and he quickly confirmed Hiroto's story. The other three promptly walked up the building and into the room without going through the floors.

Because of him, they missed Kakashi as well as (thankfully) Gai's genjutsu that inflicted mental trauma to some unlucky genin a floor down.

00000000

Naruto grinned as he introduced his new friend Hiroto to the other Konoha genin. Hinata was understandably nervous until she noted that Hiroto was making it a point to avoid her like the plague. When asked why by her Inuzuka teammate, Hiroto cheerfully gave him the same answer he gave Naruto.

He was under orders to avoid the pale-eyed clan to avoid problems.

Of course, that didn't stop the ever-sadistic Ibiki from putting him next to a still terrified Hinata. Nor did it stop Ibiki from putting him in front a still livid Neji, who was intent on boring holes through his head.

**End Notes: **Great news, it turns out I didn't lose the chapter. I just thought I did. Sorry for the scare and I hope this gets everyone ready for the next chapter as starting with chapter three, the rest of the chapters (however many they will be) will be all my own work. Again, I apologize and I will be working on my other stories, I promise. I just don't know which one will be updated next. Ciao!

~Selene-daughter of the sea


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